Nick Ferrari

Writer and LBC radio presenter

Stupidity reaches a new high says NICK FERRARI

AND NOW for something completely different... Actually, not just different but totally unbelievable. I find myself defending someone I have, until now, viewed as a sanctimonious, pompous, preening irritant.

Related articles

He said he would leave the post towards the end of next month and he must therefore go, whether he weakly points to the fact that he was re-elected upon the start of the new parliament.

It is richly ironic that someone who lectures everyone else so regularly (and usually at considerable length) in the House of Commons on how the public view them and what is deemed appropriate or otherwise decides it is somehow right to break a manifesto promise.

Presumably he thinks that he, and he alone, can help guide the business end of Westminster through the tortuous process of Brexit but it really does take the old adage of “do as I say, not as I do” to a new high.

Or, make that low. He has also been the subject of a number of accusations concerning bullying and undermining behaviour to others including his own staff, all of which he denies.

There is not a shred of doubt that such claims require urgent and stringent investigation.

At this point you’d be excused for scratching your head, reaching for another glass of robust red or brutally chilled white and pondering precisely how, or indeed why, I have opted to put myself in harm’s way to defend this individual.

Actually it is simple. The one investigation that does seem set to go ahead is into the fact that he called the leader of the house, Andrea Leadsom, a “stupid woman”.

Bercow doesn’t deny this and says it was a “muttered aside” because the usual parliamentary process had effectively been hijacked to prevent a debate on aspects of the Grenfell fire tragedy and therefore Leadsom had acted, in his view, in a stupid fashion.

Surely that is fair enough and fair comment. To her eternal credit, Leadsom didn’t call foul here and saw little merit in proceeding with any inquiry, although it might have behoved a pouting Bercow to actually acknowledge Leadsom as she made this statement instead of appearing to be studying the ceiling in the hope of spotting an invading bumblebee.

It was too late in any event. The entire matter had been weaponised and the officers and foot soldiers of the thought police were swiftly on the march.

Among the shrillest of voices were the feminist brigade – never backward in coming forward in issues such as these – who had a collective fit of the vapours.

How dare their sister be labelled a “woman”, they demanded. Seriously! What is she then? A man? A horse? This is absurd confected rage at its most risible.

Others took exception at his use of the word “stupid” but it is nigh on impossible to fathom why they are so offended.

Many workplaces, with the Commons possibly close to the pinnacle, are robust places and this is the regular, everyday language.

Bercow's comments against Andrea Leadsom seem to be the only ones currently receiving attention (Image: GETTY)

Imagine if you dropped a pallet of bricks on a building site or backed your delivery truck through the windows of a supermarket?

Do you not agree you’d consider yourself rather fortunate if you got away with only being called “stupid?”

Seeking to excise or regulate against a term such as this is to rob the English language of much of its richness and descriptive power.

Scarcely a day passes when we are not told what statues should be covered up, monuments torn down or colleges or halls have their names changed, despite them being in situ for decades, or even centuries in some instances.

It’s time to put an end to all of this – and anyone who disagrees is surely... stupid!

__________________________________________

North Yorkshire police admitted there were 'lessons to be learned' in the investigation (Image: GETTY)

AS TWO teenagers plotted a Columbine style massacre on their school in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, it became too much for one plotter.

He told police of his accomplice’s plan “to clear out the underclass”. Yet the police did precisely nothing for four whole weeks, when they were finally arrested.

Read the words of North Yorkshire police’s head of safeguarding (some “safeguarding”!), Allen Harder: “In terms of any investigation, there’s always lessons to be learned – positive lessons and lessons to be taken forward to best practice.”

Nope, me neither.

__________________________________________

I THINK I have discovered the origin of the word “snowflake”: it must derive from the bizarre ramblings of deluded historian Dan Snow.

Taking his two daughters and son on a visit to an aircraft museum, they came across a gallery of photographs celebrating the impact the superb Spitfire aircraft exerted during the Second World War.

His six-year-old daughter ran through the display chanting “boy, boy, boy” and that spurred soppy Snow into action.

For reasons only he will ever be able to divine, he chose to instantly re-write history and assure his little girl that women had flown Spitfires into combat during the war.

This is wholly untrue and you’d have hoped, as someone who gained a first-class honours degree in history from Oxford University, Snow would have been aware of this.

Dan Snow's insistence on female spitfire combat pilots during world war two goes against his duty (Image: GETTY)

But he chose to indulge in the ghastly “gender politics” of today.

Instead of informing his little girl that without women many Spitfires would never have been built as they toiled like Trojans in the factories and others would never have got to their relevant airfields as they were flown there by women, Snow blatantly lied to, in his words, allow his daughters to “follow their dreams”.

One day the girls will discover the truth, perhaps from a friend or teacher, and what are they then supposed to make of their famous historian father?

Without doubt women have been unjustly discriminated against down the years but indulging in re-writing history in such an egregious way will never change this Rather, you lose your audience the second you resort to such lunacy.

__________________________________________

AS STORIES concerning disgraced Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe are currently all the rage with BBC drama A Very British Scandal earning plaudits, it’s safe to say I imagine that few can match my tale.

The surprise guest at my 16th birthday party was none other than Norman Scott, the ex-lover whose murder Thorpe was alleged to have planned and ordered.

The reason was that my late father was an executive at a tabloid newspaper and had “bought him up” and decided to hide him away at the family home in Kent until the interview was published.

Scott was tremendous company, extremely witty and kept my parents, brothers and some of my school pals enchanted with his stories and glorious gossip – most of which I cannot repeat, even today. He’s also rather partial to birthday cake.

__________________________________________

BEFORE we know it, the population will nudge 60 million, according to official forecasts from the Office for National Statistics. This must serve as a severe wake-up call to our politicians. Houses, schools and hospitals need building and transport needs planning. How about diverting some of the obscene £60billion wasted on an HS2 service no one wants?